Reply to DCI Parent Petition

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Please read the letter more carefully. People are upset about a culture of fear and retaliation where people are at risk of losing their jobs if they speak up about unjust practices. There is one small part about clocking in and clocking out, but the larger narrative is about an organization run by power and authority. The DP Coordinator, who is beloved by students, parents, and staff, did not get his contract renewed. Students started a petition to have it reinstated, and it has over 700 signatures. He was let go because he sometimes questioned harmful practices. Ask any individual at the school or any parent or student who worked with him. He is one of the most competent people there. That is the culture of the current leadership. Don't ask questions or you're gone. No matter how effective you are at your job. Teaching is hard enough, people. 94% of voting staff do not have confidence in his leadership! Clearly this is about more than clocking in and clocking out.[/quote]

If I’m gonna ask for anyone to lose their job, I want a list- a bullet point list- of harmful practices,

No one is being specific, at all. [/quote]

NINETY-FOUR PERCENT OF THE STAFF VOTED NO CONFIDENCE.

That's lower than the President. [/quote]

Sure. I’d like an enumerated list of grievances. This is the “verify” part of “trust but verify”

[/quote]

I read the letter from the staff so you don't have to. Or apparently want to. Here's what stood out to me:
- The beloved DP Coordinator's contract was not renewed and 744 students signed a petition to reinstate him
- The MYP Coordinator resigned in February with no succession plan and no communication to families and this directly threatens DCI's IB re-evaluation in 27-28
- 37 special education, EL, counseling, and support staff have left since 2023. Nearly 500 students with IEPs and 504s are affected, and the school may be out of legal compliance
- A senior leader made a racist joke about ICE to his team during a period when staff, students, and families were directly impacted and faced no meaningful accountability
- The ED and another leader received $30K bonuses each while aides took home less pay than last year due to how 'raises' were structured
- Over 125 staff departures since SY23-24

The staff letter also documents a pattern of silencing: staff told to 'stop amplifying complainers,' called 'cynical,' and warned that raising concerns is 'dragging down morale.'[/quote]

To be fair points 1 and 2,
I read somewhere or maybe it was said at the board meeting, I can’t remember but these responsibilities and role were filled with staff.

Point 3 SPED positions are hard to fill and not unique to DCI.  I would want to know if there was some restructuring of SPED dept and if some of these positions were let go and duties re-assigned and what was the reason for some of the staff that left.

Point 4 the person was suspended so not sure what you mean by no accountability.

Point 5 - what is the structure of ED and staff pay.  Is this structured separately?  Also the school had to structure those staff pay differently I read somewhere and they could not be salaried.  Need more details on this. Also is the school budget less with less funding and they had to do budget cuts?

Point 6 - so that’s about 40 staff a year which BTW was not detailed if teachers at all and details on which staff position and percentages per year of overall staff. [/quote]

1&2) The MYP and DP coordinators are a general teaching vacancy you backfill with a warm body. Those roles are among the most specialized roles in an IB school. They require IB-specific training and certification, deep familiarity with IB standards and practices, and years of experience managing the program's assessments, unit planning, and external evaluations. The DP Coordinator specifically oversees the Extended Essay, Theory of Knowledge, and the full diploma candidacy process - work that directly determines whether students earn IB diplomas. The MYP Coordinator manages Personal and Community Projects, which are IB requirements, not optional programming. You cannot just redistribute these responsibilities to existing staff who are already stretched. The letter specifically says the replacement MYP posting adds unrelated coaching duties that will impede the coordinator's actual IB work. Filling a seat isn't the same as maintaining program integrity, especially with an IB re-evaluation coming in 27-28, where the school will have to demonstrate it has been running the program with fidelity.

3) Sure SPED is hard to fill everywhere but 37 departures from one department at one school since 2023 is not a national trend. That's a retention crisis. And given how hard those roles are to fill, should be even more of a retention priority. And the letter isn't just about vacancies, it's about legal compliance. IEP triennial evaluations only happening when case managers catch the oversight themselves is a liability issue, full stop.

4) A short administrative leave after a racist ICE joke, then returned to their position, is not accountability. It's optics.

5) The letter is explicit. The ED and a colleague took $30K bonuses each. Aides had hours cut so that negotiated raises were effectively nullified. DCI has posted multi-million dollar surpluses. This isn't a budget crisis, it's the ED's choice.

6) 125 departures over roughly two years at a school of DCI's size is significant attrition by any HR benchmark. The composition matters too, and the letter does specify: IB coordinators, language teachers, SPED staff, counselors, social workers. These aren't interchangeable roles.
[/quote]

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